It Was Long Road to S.D. for Symphony’s New Cellist

Of the seven new players who joined the San Diego Symphony this season, principal cellist Xin-Hua Ma easily boasts the most exotic and globe-spanning journey to the city.

The Shanghai native made her first Western excursion in 1985, when the Shanghai Quartet took second prize in a string quartet competition in Portsmouth, England.

After performances in Chile and Canada, Ma quit the group to begin graduate studies at Yale.

While in New Haven, Conn., she played in the cello section of the Yale Philharmonic.

“I remember at my very first rehearsal of the Yale orchestra I was so shocked by the high level of playing,” said Ma, who got her masters of arts in music in 1988. She explained that in China, student musicians spend all of their time developing a solo sound and technique.

“They don’t pay much attention to orchestral repertory at all. They spend their practice time working on solo recitals.”

The orchestral regimen suited Ma well, however, and she found time to play in other orchestras such as the New Haven Symphony and the New England Chamber Orchestra.

During the summers at Yale, Ma eagerly attended summer music festivals--including Tanglewood (in Lenox, Mass.) and the Newport (Rhode Island) Chamber Music Festival, to broaden her perspective.

After graduating, Ma came to California to study cello with Eleonore Shoenfeld, the West Coast doyenne of cello pedagogues and member of the music faculty at the University of Southern California. Those studies continue today.

“When I was studying at Yale, my teacher was very emotional to the point where he sometimes wanted students to put things into the music in spite of what the score said. Schoenfeld’s approach is very logical as well as spontaneous. Intellectually, this appeals to me and makes more interpretive sense. Also, Schoenfeld stresses the production of a very rich, beautiful sound from the cello.”

Ma’s post with the local orchestra is her first principal assignment with a professional orchestra, but she had been principal cellist with a student orchestra at the Shanghai Conservatory. Ma’s musical career began during the repressive years of Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

“There were no recordings of Western classical music available then. During the Cultural Revolution, we used Western instruments like the cello to play Chinese songs. I remember the very first time I heard Mozart’s ‘Turkish March’ played on the radio. I was so happy.”

Ma’s cello teacher in Shanghai, Lin Ying-Rong, had studied six years in the Soviet Union. The Russian school of playing held sway in China until the late 1970s, according to Ma, until American violinist Isaac Stern made his historic visit to China.

Since she left China in 1985, Ma has made only a single return visit.

“During my first year in the West, I was homesick a lot. It was hard to adjust to the lifestyle and language while taking a heavy load of classes at Yale. So I felt I had to go home after my first academic year. Once I was there and saw that everyone was fine, my homesickness went away.”

Ma’s future opportunities to return to China for a visit evaporated, however, with the unrest in Beijing’s Tien An Men Square in June, 1989. (With the exception of an uncle who is a businessman in Los Angeles, all of Ma’s family, including her parents, are still in China.)

“Now, it is too risky to go back. Before, all I needed to leave the country was an American visa. Now, I would also need a special certificate from the Chinese government to return to the U.S., and I’m not at all certain that one would be forthcoming,” she explained.

This Monday, in a break from her symphony duties, Ma and fellow USC student, pianist Benjamin Saver, will perform at noon as part of the San Diego Mini-Concert series in the Lyceum Theatre at Horton Plaza. Their program will include Max Bruch’s “Kol Nidre” and Samuel Barber’s Cello Sonata, as well as solo works for each instrument.

Cancellations and departures. San Diego Symphony principal contrabass Oscar Meza has resigned from the San Diego Symphony to accept a position in the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He follows in the footsteps of his predecessor, Peter Rofe, who also found a secure and more financially rewarding niche with the L.A. orchestra.

Contrary to a report in a San Diego newspaper, San Diego Symphony principal clarinet David Peck has not resigned from the orchestra. He will, however, take a leave of absence over the 1991-92 season. Robert Shaw, the symphony’s principal guest conductor, has canceled his Jan. 11-13, 1991, concerts here due to a heart ailment. Shaw had been scheduled to conduct the symphony and the San Diego Master Chorale in the Mozart “Gran Mass.”

Look for symphony management to announce maestro Michael Palmer as the Shaw replacement. Palmer came to the orchestra’s aid a few seasons back when Christopher Keene cancelled his “Messiah” dates due to illness.

Fanfare for the uncommon composer. Last Wednesday, local classical radio stations saluted Aaron Copland’s 90th birthday. Amid countless reprises of “Appalachian Spring,” a work whose ubiquity threatens to overtake even the insipid Pachelbel “Canon,” KPBS-FM took the road less traveled and broadcast a new recording of the composer’s sole opera, “The Tender Land,” in its entirety. Kudos to the station’s unhackneyed contribution, especially considering there were no Copland performances by local musical organizations last week.